Polyphonic Q&A: Quarantine Edition

hello everyone welcome to another polyphonic Q&A as per usual this is gonna be awkward because I don't usually talk on mic when I'm not scripted especially alone but yeah so first of all I just wanted to say thank you guys all so much you guys asked so many questions your support was really overwhelming on that last update video um there were so many nice comments you guys really you guys really made my day and it was really a ton of fun reading through all the comments to to find questions for this I'm really sorry if I didn't get to your question that's that's just the way of things I tried not to answer questions that I've already answered in my previous q and A's so you might be able to look back on some of those for if you're looking for answers to some of these and if not you can also just hit me up on Twitter and I'm more likely to respond to questions there just because I don't have a constant deluge coming at me but I really did try to get to as many questions as I could and I tried to get to questions that I thought were really particularly neat and thoughtful so right before we jump in just big thanks to everyone who supports me on patreon and everyone who signs up for nebula I know I repeat this a lot but that really does help so big shout out to you guys alright um speaking of nebula I've had a number of questions about my Dark Side of the Moon project so I'm gonna tell you guys what's going on with that before you worry too much yes the rest of the project is coming I'm hoping that it'll be on nebula next week maybe or maybe the week after for the sake of transparency I want to let you guys know so basically in the fall I was working on this project and I was kind of in the zone and then just kind of got busy as as you do in the fall I had Christmas stuff and then we ended up moving apartments on New Year's Eve and there was some stuff that I'm not gonna talk about kind of personal stuff going on too so that really derailed this a little bit and it's been hard to kind of pick up where I left off and get back into it and then also the friggin pandemic hit and that's kind of thrown my whole mental space out of whack a little bit so yes the rest of the Dark Side of the Moon stuff is coming I'm gonna sit down and force myself to do it within the next week or two so it'll be up on nebula there and then later it'll be coming to YouTube but I'm sorry it's taking so long to get the the back side of this it's just really hard to kind of I I stopped dead and it's hard to pick up that momentum and keep the same aesthetic and the same energy in the project but but it's coming I'm gonna finish this project I promise all right on to some some various questions there's no particular rhyme or reason to how I chose these I took a bunch of screenshots of questions and I'm just you know reading through them all as I go now okay so David Sally asks what are my favorite album covers of all time oh that's a really good question I mean there's kind of some obvious ones Dark Side of the Moon comes to mind pretty much anything by hypnosis I love what hypnosis does and and a big one they do that I love that the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is is an all time favorite album cover for me I love the cover of Algiers new album the design on that is phenomenal it's very on my alley and really like any of the Blue Note Records covers I love that old jazz cover look and some old Sinatra covers too those are really really cool I got a couple questions asking about how I kind of have learned to to see music like this and that's that comes from a couple places a lot of it was just like I just used to sit around and read everything I could about music I loved my read some music books but a lot of it was just browsing finding interviews and stuff online and that's still actually kind of my research process now so really it's just reading a lot and talking a lot about music and just kind of surrounding yourself with music and thinking about what you listen to but then more structurally a lot of my critical thought comes from I have a minor in English and a lot of literary theory has helped me analyze this kind of stuff and you you can learn to kind of read a text through that and then my major is in journalism and I was a music journalist so a lot of that stuff comes from just talking with bands writing reviews really like anything though it's it's just putting in the hours if if you read a lot about music and try to write a lot about music and stuff like that you'll improve at this so yeah I think that that's that's basically it okay I love this question by Ned Rd Blue Oyster Cult once said the creature known as Godzilla needed to go even though at the time the song was written Godzilla had just foiled the plans of a mad scientist controlling a kaiju known as Titanosaurus as well as helping to feed a group of aliens who rebuilt the original mecha godzilla to take over the world yet Blue Oyster Cult also says that one shouldn't fear the reaper even though on average 6316 people die each hour due to the reaper collecting their metaphysical form or soul in layman's terms the question is if Blue Oyster Cult are justified in their hatred for Godzilla and their passive feelings towards the reaper well I think that Godzilla helped you know foil Titanosaurus and defeat mecha godzilla i don't think that means that godzilla has completely atoned for the blood of his destruction and I think uhm for Blue Oyster Cult the Reaper is more of a metaphysical force like like you said it's it's collecting their metaphysical form and I think that for Blue Oyster Cult there is an inevitability of death so when Death Comes for you you personally shouldn't fear it and I think that's talking on a more personal level whereas Godzilla caused havoc on on a catastrophic level and and maybe the people that he killed shouldn't have feared the reaper because it was their time to die but I think Blue Oyster Cult don't think that that means that you're justified in killing another person I think I think that's really where it comes from is Godzilla had agency and chose to kill these people and yes he's atoning for it now yes maybe he saved a lot of people but but I think that that's still tainted by by the destruction that Godzilla that Godzilla caused in the first so I think that that's where the where the Godzilla and Reaper dichotomy um comes in SNC asked how I manage my time and I think I got a couple other people kind of asking about my process I work pretty regular hours most days I start work around 7 or 8 and work until 6 ish sometimes 7 if I'm in the zone sometimes I'll work longer um if I'm not sometimes I'll work less but generally I try to kind of hold myself to a steady Monday to Friday schedule and then chip in a couple hours on the weekend dividing time for the passion projects a lot of the time the passion projects I'll do at night I try to create some structure in my week so that you know I can I can get things done and I can hold myself accountable kind of during these like 9:00 to 5:00 ish hours I don't let myself not work this is work that I need to do so I hold myself to that schedule in a very rigid way and then I can kind of clock out and do some of my passion projects after I've gotten a number of questions about kind of contemporary artists like let like here's one from Drake gear Timmons who asks are there any artists that I'm expecting to blow up or hit their stride in 2020 and the thing is like I'm not actually that in touch with what's going on now there are some modern bands I like and some modern groups some some modern groups I'm listening to a lot right now the comet is coming are um are phenomenal and you've probably noticed some big hozier fan I think he's doing some really cool stuff and I guess no name I think she has a lot of potential to do some really cool stuff there's a lot of interesting bands doing interesting stuff but I don't I don't really try to predict who's gonna blow up I listen to a lot of things on my at my own pace and I try not to get too too caught up with what's going on right now maybe that's a good thing maybe it's not I don't know Deepak asks who's my favorite Beatle George Harrison I am I'm a george fan boy i just i just think his songs a lot of my favourite Beatle songs are George songs I think he's got this real raw honesty to him and I mean obviously his guitar playing is incredible but as a songwriter I mean something is one of the most beautiful songs ever written I mean mine is a severely underrated deep cut while my guitar gently weeps is one of the best Beatles songs and I just I just kind of like his his ethos and his approach to music I think it's very compelling and holistic and I think it he creates really good songs Makita Amir asks how does someone start exploring a genre and I think that's tough because I think what happens when you explore new genres is that you're looking at them through the framework of the music that you understand so a lot of the time when people have a hard time getting into a new genre it's because let's say for example you're trying to get into jazz and and you know rock there are some similarities there but for the most part if you're approaching jazz through a Rock framework you're not approaching jazz on Jazz's terms and so you're not gonna appreciate the things that that make jazz great and and I think that that's that's the struggle that a lot of people have and I think talking to people who know the genre is a great way to get a sense of this ask with them what they listen for when they're listening to this music and then I think you can get a sense of that genres terms and you can come to it on their terms if you try to if you try to come to music on your own terms you might like some you might not but if you try to open yourself up and be like okay what does a jazz fan like about jazz don't say what do I like about jazz don't say what do my rock ears like say what does a jazz fan like about jazz and then listen for those things and and you might be able to learn to pick up and appreciate those things al spam asks what do I recommend to someone who wants to start a channel with content on culture and music to just start it man I had a bit of a head start because I knew some video editing but when I started my channel I didn't know that much start it make some stuff it out and put it out in the world and the big thing that I'll say is just do it for you and don't do it because you want to get rich don't do it because you want to get famous if you're gonna start a channel do it because you have something to say and do because you really really want to do it don't go in expecting to change anyone's lives don't go in expecting your channel to blow up I didn't go in for any of those stuff I just I just did it because I thought hey I would like to see this kind of stuff so I did it um and and to this day I still try to make videos that I would want to watch and I try to make my art for me so that's all that I would say is like don't be scared just buckle down think of a topic write a script maybe get a friend or two to edit it and then just record it and put some visuals out there the biggest thing that I will say is um if you're serious about it give yourself a backlog before you put it out to the world because the nature of YouTube is in all likelihood unfortunately you'll probably mire in obscurity I'm sure there are so many video essays it's doing incredible stuff that I haven't come upon but if you get lucky like I did and if the algorithm decides it likes one of your videos and it picks up you want to have that backlog so that you can just keep putting videos out and keep kind of you know using your success I didn't launch polyphonic until I had five completed videos in the bag and and I still that helped me for so long so that's what I'll say is make a couple of videos and then just put them out there um I was just some guy I'm still just some guy the infamous Muser asks a couple questions would I ever consider doing a tutorial here's the thing is I am so self-taught that all of my stuff is so friggin sloppy I don't keep my assets organized I don't name my layers like it's really it's really messy and I probably do a lot of things in really inefficient ways I think that's the biggest my biggest concern with tutorials is I have a lot of bad habits because I'm not really trained in this I'm self-taught and a lot of stuff I don't want to teach people those bad habits I'm sure there's more efficient ways of doing 80% of what I do but I've considered it maybe I'll maybe I'll do it someday I don't know though we'll see I got a couple questions asking about weirder bands that I like yeah I like weird music I love Captain Beefheart especially dock at the radar station is a severely underrated album other weird bands I mean do the talking head count there they're kind of weird Ornette Coleman I love Ornette Coleman and I love a lot of free jazz and avant-garde jazz oh also I like Zappa as much as the next guy I like Tom Waits as much as the next guy I've got a weird side I think everyone should Eric Webb asked a couple questions he asked did I always approach music with this kind of passion and curiosity I think I kind of touched on that before absolutely and then he also asked has researching a song or artist for this channel changed my perception of them absolutely it does all of the time almost always for the better I think I think one of the biggest perception changes I guess has just like Scott Joplin and ragtime after doing that video I had such a deeper appreciation of ragtime as a genre and that's really cool George Oban asks what person had the most significant impact on my taste in music and appreciation of it that's probably my older brother when he kind of first started to get into music on his own he introduced a lot of it to me so a lot of my early favorite bands Green Day Billy Talent sum 41 The Killers like a lot of this stuff and kind of like the mid-2000s he introduced to me and he also he also kind of got me into Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and stuff like that too so I'd say he probably has has been my biggest musical influence along along with my parents my parents have great taste in music and they brought me up on music yeah really my family is is really who has had the most impact on my appreciation and taste of music Bastien lévesque asks what artists had the potential to music scene but didn't yeah I think Syd Barrett what she mentions is a good example I am just like eternally curious as to what what the pop world might have looked like if Amy Winehouse hadn't died and hadn't struggled so much with addiction I think she is a singular talent who is incredibly unique and I think she could have really done a lot for the pop world I also think if we're for coming with the 27 club now I think there was still so so much more to be explored in Nirvana and I think it's a real real tragedy I in my mind in utero was their best album and it felt like they were just maturing more and more and could have done some really cool compelling stuff had Kurt Cobain not died and then a wholesome before during the 27 club let's say Jimi Hendrix - I mean Jimi Hendrix before he died was lining up collaborations with Miles Davis like I want [ __ ] brew era Miles Davis working with Jimi Hendrix that is a music world that I want to live in sandalwood RK asks if there are Zahn resort island understand or were averse to but came to love absolutely I mean really most things outside of rock I didn't listen to until I was in my 20s when I was in high school I basically exclusively listened to rock music and now in my daily listening traditional rock makes up about probably not even half of what I listen to on a day-to-day basis um David Campbell asks about my assets so a lot of the assets some of them I make myself but the vast vast majority of them actually come from Wikimedia Commons captain spooky asked if there's any genre that I'd like to touch on more all of them I really want to get better at touching on stuff made outside of the UK in North America but it's also tough because I don't I don't speak many other languages my my research requires me to read so many sources and it's just it's hard to find sources written in English about non-english artists unfortunately because I would love to do some of this stuff brand injustice asks is there a topic that I refuse to make a video on not that I can think of offhand I do have one rule which is that I don't want to make negative videos I always always think it's better to celebrate what we love about music rather than to knock down other musicians who just happen to not align to our personal tastes insert clever name here asks if there's ideas that I started working on and then abandoned there are so many of those I have so many scripts sitting completely untouched I might release those on my patreon or something someday I'm not really sure though one asked for some channels to recommend on nebula if you like what I do then middle eight and Volks Iced are absolute go twos oh also twelve tone if you like music as well if you like like general knowledge I'm a big fan of Wendover second thought of real life floor Patrick Williams is also awesome if you like film if you like film there's there's a fair amount of great film stuff nando V movies is on there cinema wins yeah I think I think those are some recommendations also the originals there's some really really cool originals Tom Scott's new original money is bonkers I liked I liked this question a lot from Oscar Mike he asked my seven wonders of modern music 7zh on redefining albums the absolute must hear for each genre so I'm gonna do the seven genres that come fastest to me in my mind the definitive jazz album is kind of blue for hip-hop it would probably have to be to pimp a butterfly for rock I guess Dark Side of the Moon I guess it's gotta be for country I do Johnny Cash live at Folsom Prison for pop I guess it's probably got to be thriller for R&B or Soul I'd say songs in the key of life and then for metal probably paranoid or master of reality I hope those are genres that work for you I don't know Gregory Stratman asked what the best video I think I've ever made is probably my degraded media video or my Scott Joplin video those are at least content wise visually the video I'm dropping next week is it's something else visually I've got a couple people asking how making videos has changed the way I listen to music and it's changed it in a lot of ways sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse sometimes I find it hard to just sit down and enjoy music now without thinking oh this could be a video idea oh what's going on here but I also think it has broadened my horizons and made me listen to way more music and made me appreciate a far far broader swath of music and I ever would have before so I'm incredibly grateful for that Erin Mahoney asked for some of my visual influences so early on my visual influences were a lot more in the video essay realm the the animator who does a lot of stuff for Vox aerial Costa is is a huge huge influence on me you can check his stuff out I'll put a link to his website there terry gilliam the stuff he did for Monty Python I love that stuff and then another big one more recently is actually a Robert Rauschenberg okay so we'll see we'll see what this is after editing but this is an hour of raw recording so I'm gonna I'm gonna call it there thank you guys so much for watching if you're still around here at the end thanks for sticking around be sure to you know like comment subscribe and hit Deline ability do you do but but really that actually liked it unfortunately that does help me a lot so if you could do that it'd be great um yeah I don't know thanks for tuning in let me know if you want me to do another Q soon I guess follow me on twitter follow me on patreon sorry if I didn't get to your question I've there's a lot of questions yeah I don't know I'm tired now so so I'm gonna peace out and edit this thank you guys so much for watching you guys are the best stay safe stay sane stay inside

Channel: Polyphonic

Views: 33,180

Keywords: polyphonic, music, video essay

Id: xsKgL7UNS7M

Length: 22min 16sec (1336 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 23 2020